The noun product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort"[1] or the "result of an act or a process",[2] and stems from the verb produce, from the Latin prōdūce(re) '(to) lead or bring forth'. Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced.[3] Since 1695, the word has referred to "thing or things produced". The economic or commercial meaning of product was first used by political economist Adam Smith Adam Smith was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economics. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The latter, usually abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and.[4]
In marketing Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in products or services. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business development. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves, a product is anything that can be offered to a market A market is any one of a variety of different systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby persons trade, and goods and services are exchanged, forming part of the economy. It is an arrangement that allows buyers and sellers to exchange things. Competition is essential in markets, and separates market from trade that might satisfy a want or need.[5] In retailing Retailing consists of the sale of goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be individuals or businesses. In commerce, a "retailer", products are called merchandise Merchandising is the methods, practices, and operations used to promote and sustain certain categories of commercial activity. In the broadest sense, merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to the variety of products available for sale and the. In manufacturing Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to make things for use or sale. Also it can be used for selling things. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale. Such, products are purchased as raw materials A raw material is something that is acted upon or used by or by human labor or industry, for use as a building material to create some product or structure.[citation needed] Often the term is used to denote material that came from nature and is in an unprocessed or minimally processed state. Iron ore, logs, and crude oil, would be examples. A non- and sold as finished goods Finished goods are goods that have completed the manufacturing process but have not yet been sold or distributed to the end user. Commodities A commodity is a good for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. It is fungible, i.e. equivalent no matter who produces it. Examples are petroleum, notebook paper, milk or copper. The price of copper is universal, and fluctuates daily based on global supply and demand. Stereo systems, on are usually raw materials such as metals and agricultural products, but a commodity can also be anything widely available in the open market. In project management Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. It is sometimes conflated with program management, however technically a program is actually a higher level construct: a group of related and somehow interdependent projects, products are the formal definition of the project deliverables In project management, a product breakdown structure is a tool for analysing, documenting and communicating the outcomes of a project, and forms part of the product based planning technique that make up or contribute to delivering the objectives of the project.
In general usage, product may refer to a single item or unit, a group of equivalent products, a grouping of goods or services, or an industrial classification for the goods or services.
A related concept is subproduct The noun product is defined as a "thing produced by labor or effort" or the "result of an act or a process", and stems from the verb produce, from the Latin prōdūce '(to) lead or bring forth'. Since 1575, the word "product" has referred to anything produced. Since 1695, the word has referred to "thing or things, a secondary but useful result of a production process.
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Product groups
Tangible and intangible products
Products can be classified as tangible or intangible.[6] A tangible product is any physical product that can be touched like a computer, automobile, etc. An intangible product is a non-physical product like an insurance policy.
In its online product catalog, retailer Sears, Roebuck and Company Sears, officially named Sears, Roebuck and Co., is an American chain of Department stores which was founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in the late 19th century. Formerly a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Sears merged with Kmart in early 2005, creating the Sears Holdings Corporation divides its products into departments, then presents products to shoppers according to (1) function or (2) brand.[7] Each product has a Sears item number and a manufacturer's model number. The departments and product groupings that Sears uses are intended to help customers browse products by function or brand within a traditional department store A department store is a retail establishment which specializes in satisfying a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories. Department stores usually sell products including structure.[8]
Sizes and colors
A catalog number, especially for clothing, may group sizes and colors. When ordering the product, the customer specifies size, color and other variables.[9]
Product line
A product line is "a group of products that are closely related, either because they function in a similar manner, are sold to the same customer groups, are marketed through the same types of outlets, or fall within given price ranges."[10]
Many businesses offer a range of product lines which may be unique to a single organization or may be common across the business's industry. In 2002 the US Census compiled revenue figures for the finance and insurance industry by various product lines such as "accident, health and medical insurance premiums" and "income from secured consumer loans".[11] Within the insurance In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the insurance; an insured or policyholder is the person or industry, product lines are indicated by the type of risk coverage, such as auto insurance Vehicle insurance is insurance purchased for cars, trucks, and other vehicles. Its primary use is to provide protection against losses incurred as a result of traffic accidents and against liability that could be incurred in an accident, commercial insurance and life insurance Life insurance or life assurance is a contract between the policy owner and the insurer, where the insurer agrees to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the occurrence of the insured individual's or individuals' death or other event, such as terminal illness or critical illness. In return, the policy owner agrees to pay a stipulated.[12]
National and international product classifications
Various classification systems for products have been developed for economic statistical purposes. The North American Industry Classification System The North American Industry Classification System or NAICS is used by business and government to classify business establishments according to type of economic activity (process of production) in Canada, Mexico and the United States. It has largely replaced the older Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system; however, certain government (NAICS) classifies companies by their primary product [this is not even close to true, NAICS is a production-oriented classification system, not a product-oriented classification system – the NAFTA signatories are working on a system that classifies products called NAPCS as a companion to NAICS [1]. The European Union uses a "Classification of Products by Activity" among other product classifications.[13] The United Nations also classifies products for international economic activity reporting.[14]
The Aspinwall Classification System[citation needed] (Leo Aspinwall, 1958) classifies and rates products based on five variables:
- Replacement rate (How frequently is the product repurchased?)
- Gross margin (How much profit is obtained from each product?)
- Buyer goal adjustment (How flexible are the buyers' purchasing habits with regard to this product?)
- Duration of product satisfaction (How long will the product produce benefits for the user?)
- Duration of buyer search behavior (How long will consumers shop for the product?)
The National Institute of Governmental Purchasing The National Institute of Governmental Purchasing, Inc. is a national, membership-based non-profit organization providing support to professionals in the public sector purchasing profession. NIGP provides its members with many services, including education, professional networking, research, and technical assistance (NIGP)[15] developed a commodity and services classification system for use by state and local governments, the NIGP Code The NIGP Commodity/Services Code is an acronym for the National Institute of Governmental Purchasings Commodity Services Code. The NIGP Code is a coding taxonomy used primarily to classify products and services procured by state and local governments.[16] The NIGP Code is used by 33 states within the United States as well as thousands of cities, counties and political subdivisions. The NIGP Code is a hierarchical schema consisting of a 3 digit class, 5 digit class-item, 7 digit class-item-group and an 11 digit class-item-group-detail.[17] Applications of the NIGP Code include vendor registration, inventory item identification, contract item management, spend analysis and strategic sourcing.
See also
Footnotes
- ^ Random House Dictionary, 1975
- ^ Glossary of the terms related to quality assurance from the Tempus Joint European Project for the Development of Quality Assurance
- ^ Etymology of product, etymonline.com.
- ^ Etymology of produce
- ^ Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Brown, L., and Adam, S. (2006) Marketing, 7th Ed. Pearson Education Australia/Prentice Hall.
- ^ upenn.edu
- ^ Sears online, sears.com.
- ^ When an online Sears customer goes to the "Parts and accessories" section of the website to find parts for a particular Sears item, the "model number" field actually requires a Sears item number, not a manufacturer's model number. This is a typical problem with product codes or item codes that are internally assigned by a company but do not conform to an external standard.
- ^ L.L. Beans webpage for ordering men's "Dress Chinos, Classic Fit Pleated", catalog number TA55203. llbean.com. Accessed 2007-07-01.
- ^ Kotler, Philip; Gary Armstrong (1989). Principles of Marketing, fourth edition (Annotated Instructor's Edition). Prentice-Hall, Inc.. pp. 639 (glossary definition). ISBN The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, now Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966 0137061293.
- ^ "2002 Economic Census, Finance and Insurance" US Census Bureau, 2002, p.14.
- ^ Insurance carrier product lines at the Open Directory Project The Open Directory Project , also known as Dmoz (from directory.mozilla.org, its original domain name), is a multilingual open content directory of World Wide Web links. It is owned by Netscape, but it is constructed and maintained by a community of volunteer editors
- ^ Eurostat classifications, ec.europa.eu.
- ^ United Nations product classifications, unstats.un.org.
- ^ National Institute of Governmental Purchasing, nigp.org
- ^ NIGP Code
- ^ NIGP Code sample
Categories: Business terms Categories: Business | Economics terminology | Terminology | Marketing Categories: Business | Service industries | Business economics | Product management | Production Categories: Categories lacking a description | Production and organizations | Production and manufacturing | Supply chain management terms Categories: Supply chain management | Commercial item transport and distribution
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For . products. such as coffee to be labeled certified organic, a farm or . business. must set high standards throughout the entire growing process. From the way seeds or plants are stored to before they are planted, are just as important as ...
Q. Okay, I'm at a loss. I'm looking for a catchy name, but am now torn because the name I chose starts with an L, and I'm looking for something that begins with an A or B so I can be further up in the directory (yellow pages). What I'm looking at now is Le Coccinelle which is French for Ladybug. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Typical bath products with natural bar soaps as a base.
Asked by S S - Fri Oct 26 10:42:45 2007 - - 3 Answers - 0 Comments
A. Bain de Bulle has alliteration going for it / translates to Bubble Bath / directly relates to your products / would list in the B's in the y pages / is fun to say / may work better with search engine stuff about which I know absolutely nothing
Answered by annie b - Fri Oct 26 13:12:55 2007
